Mixed reality is a technology that allows virtual imagery to be mixed with a real world physical environment. A see-through, head mounted display (HMD) device may be worn by a user to view the mixed imagery of real objects and virtual objects displayed in the user's field of view. A user may further interact with virtual objects, for example by performing hand, head or voice gestures to move the objects, alter their appearance or simply view them.
It may be desirable to display commonly used information in a virtual heads-up display on the HMD, such as for example time, date, wireless signal strength, user-selected icons, etc. If the heads-up display (HUD) is head locked, i.e., it moves at the same rate of the head, the user sees the same side of the displayed virtual objects, and they may appear two-dimensional. Additionally, using space in the field of view to render HUD elements wastes precious area for rendering other virtual content. Conversely, if the HUD is a world locked element, the user has to remember where they left the HUD.